Practical Technology

It’s not especially easy to deploy, but Windows 7 supports simple software RAID. Here’s how to do it, using low-cost storage you already own: a bunch of USB flash drives. (I’d say I created a RAID array of USB drives simply to demonstrate the technique, but really… one reason to do this is because, well, [...]

[Read more →]

Many people use Linux every day in their homes and offices and never realize it. That’s because they’re using NAS (network attached storage) devices, like the D-Link DNS-323, and almost these drives run Linux and Samba. Now, HP has partnered with Likewise to bring plug-and-play Linux file servers to mid-size and enterprise businesses These HP [...]

[Read more →]

Up-to-date computers now include external ports that, in theory, can handle data at rates of up to 5 Gigabits per second. But which is better? If you’ve been in the computer business for any length of time you can probably painfully remember when serial RS-232 ports could barely handle 28 Kilobytes per second. And, adding [...]

[Read more →]

Ever get tired of Windows people proclaiming how their operating system has device support for this, that, and the other thing and Linux doesn’t? Well, now you have a perfect come-back. The newest, fast interface, USB 3.0 is out and only Linux has native support for it. Linux started supporting USB 3.0 in the September [...]

[Read more →]

If you’re like me, you’ve taken to carrying important data on USB sticks or flash drives. They’re handy, you can use them on any PC, and with built-in encryption even if you lost them it was no big deal. Bad news: It’s now a big deal. The German security company SySS GmbH discovered that many, [...]

[Read more →]